The Musée du Quai Branly has just opened a new workshop called the Atelier Martine Aublet, and now visitors can discover this exciting new installation thanks to its very first exhibition, entitled La Dame du Fleuve (The Lady of the River).

The Atelier Martine Aublet is workshop that was created with the aim to regularly showcase the spontaneous nature of the museum world and the life of the museum. Exhibitions could include sneak previews of recent museum acquisitions as well as presentations by contemporary artists and institutions that are normally not seen at the Musée du Quai Branly, which is primarily a museum for primitive art.

Guests staying at the Hotel de la Tour Maubourg will therefore not want to miss the inaugural exhibition of the Atelier Martine Aublet, the first workshop of its kind at the Musée du Quai Branly.

La Dame du Fleuve will be the first exhibition of the Atelier Martine Aublet, and it will go on from June 5, 2012 until September 30, 2012. This piece was the museum’s number one acquisition of all of 2011.

La Dame du Fleuve is a large sculpture that comes from the New Guinea region, and it represents a woman who is both a triumphant figure and a primordial mother. Its impressive size and symbolic importance make it a masterpiece among the primitive artwork collected by the museum. The exhibition also includes 27 other pieces from the same regional group, whose members inhabit an area around the Sepik River. The theme of the entire exhibition revolves around the place of women within this primitive culture.